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Posted by: Charlie (cjoseph@eagle1.eaglenet.com) on 11/23/1997@02:21hrs:
In Reply to: Thanksgiving on Old SI posted by: rs on 11/22/1997@20:26hrs:
Bob,
Thanksgiving as I understand it, is unique to North America. They do
celebrate it in Canada, but in October. It's a feast to celebrate the
bringing in of the crops and an opportunity to eat all the perishables
that cannot be stored. Since Mexico is also N. America I wonder if they
celebrate it?
With the coming of the holidays, I'm reminded we have a slightly different
format for Christmas in my house. My wife is from Finland and we kind
of combine the traditions. For instance the Christmas tree is outside
on the deck, and hopefully gets snowed on. Of course with 6 German Shepherds,
you really don't want the tree in house anyway. Christmas Dinner is Christmas
Eve and is a several hour affair. After dinner we all go out on the deck
to the sauna and wait for Santa. Of course my wife insists he begins his
run in Lapland in Northern Finland. If we're lucky, it snows so we can
roll in the snow to cool off before getting back in the sauna:) Go ahead,
laugh, I have done it!
Essentially what we do is make Thanksgiving a purely American holiday,
and combine the best of both traditions for Christmas and New Years.
My contributions to the traditions are from my heritage as a Staten Islander,
and what I learned from my family and friends from the Island.